The present invention relates to a front structure of a vehicle which comprises a shock absorbing member for protecting an object, such as a pedestrian, which is provided between a bumper reinforcement and an exterior member, such as a bumper facia.
A shock absorbing member is generally provided between a bumper reinforcement and a bumper facia for the purpose of protecting an object, particularly a pedestrian. Conventionally, this kind of shock absorbing member is provided over a whole area of a front face of the bumper reinforcement, and the bumper facia is provided to cover the shock absorbing member from the front. However, it has been found that it is preferable to configure such that an attachment position of the shock absorbing member is apart from a knee portion of the pedestrian, specifically, this attachment position is located at a lower level in order to properly reduce a collision impact against a leg portion of the pedestrian. Thus, a structure, in which the shock absorbing member is arranged mainly in a lower area of the front face of the bumper reinforcement so that a lower leg portion of the pedestrian below the knee portion can be supported at the shock absorbing member, whereby the collision impact can be reduced properly in a light collision against the pedestrian, has been recently used (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-145159, for example). Further, in this case, the shock absorbing member is configured to project forward relatively greatly so as to provide the sufficient shock-absorbing performance by preventing complete crushing of the shock absorbing member in the light collision. Further, another front structure of a vehicle provided with a shock absorbing member is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,964, for example.
It has been recently considered as measures of protecting the pedestrian in the light collision that the leg portion of the pedestrian is flicked so that the pedestrian can be received on an engine hood (bonnet) in order to reduce the collision impact against the pedestrian properly. Therefore, it is preferable that the vehicle equipped with the above-described shock absorbing member have this leg-flicking function for the pedestrian protection.